5 Reasons to Go to Corporate Decision-Makers Other Than Head of Human Relations
You will hardly find wrong people at right places.
Choose to be at the right places and you will find the right people who will inspire you to make it happen!”
– Israelmore Ayivor, Leaders’ Watchwords
You KNOW that your expertise helps employees be more productive, happier, healthier, more balanced, receptive to new ideas and differences in people, and on and on. In your heart of hearts, it’s obvious to you that you can make a positive difference to a well-known company’s culture that has tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of employees. And your logic says when employees are happy, the company is more productive, helps more people, and makes more revenue AND profit.
After all, we’re talking about taking these 52 how-to tips on time management, wellness, and other topics that generically apply to every human being employed by a big company, right? Seems like a slam-dunk, doesn’t it, sitting there waiting to be contacted.
Yeah, well, no. While it would seem like Human Relations is an ideal first stop, more often than not, it is anything BUT a department that’s receptive to buying the information you’re offering. Keep in mind that it’s not “never,” it’s usually the exception rather than the rule. Yes, I know that many organizations are eagerly installing wellness programs to offer their employees. More companies are not, no matter how reasonable, logical, beneficial, statistically supported ,or many other positive concepts you go to.
On the most basic level, even at hundreds of thousands of employees of a corporation, the total number of recipients of your content is a significantly smaller number of people than departments that reach OUTSIDE the company.
Think of these departments: sales, marketing, publicity, even investor relations in many cases. And, each of these departments’ primary function is directly or indirectly to increase revenue for the company. Not so with Human Relations.
The employee base is expected to maintain high quality with every aspect of the company’s systems, processes, product/service quality. Yes, those things are crucial in maintaining customers. However, unless there is a steady and/or noteworthy “oops” made by the company and the “oops” is handled badly, the employees have a much less direct impact on revenue and profit. And while there are exceptions, to the statements in this article, it can be challenging, discouraging, and even impossible to build a marketing plan for your tips products based primarily on the exceptions.
All of that brings the conversation to who ARE the corporate decision-makers to contact once you’ve made available the products and services reflecting your expertise? Do they all have the same title? Is it best to reach out to organizations that are obviously connected to your topic? The short answer to both those questions is “no.” Rather than their exact title, it’s more an issue of what their function is as a decision-maker. They can be called lots of things. The same is true with your prospective bulk buyer decision-makers. While your starting point for your time management tips products may be calendar companies, you might also find an enthusiastic large-quantity buyer at large private academy or a company having NOTHING to do with time management. Because your topic is generic, it can be used in a promotional campaign at the end of a year to help improve the lives of their customers as they start a new year.
To get you thinking, here are a few reasons to go in directions OTHER than Human Relations to successfully sell your information:
Recognize that many companies need and/or want to distinguish themselves within their industry. Your content’s various delivery formats helps the head of publicity send out something that easily stands out from the pile of printed-signature corporate holiday cards or even a beautifully designed email sent to customers in December.
Imagine the enthusiasms of someone on the company’s “only accepts our free offers” marketing list when receiving a FREE helpful parenting tips booklet – printed or PDF. Making that parent’s life easier is often a strong motivator to explore products that toddler toy company makes, moving themself to a paying customer.
Talk with a head of sales (often one or more per company division) about which product or service needs more attention promotionally in what calendar quarter. While you determined your topic is a good fit, the decision-maker wants a delivery format most likely to satisfy goals that have been set.
Notice how often you see “gift with purchase.” It’s a website, flyer, onsite sign, or other promotional activities. A bank can increase its non-English speaking customers by the branch manager and corporate marketing executive offering a free translated version of Tips to Manage Your Money when opening an account there.
Keep in mind mid-size companies as prospective bulk buyers of tips products. The business owner has a much larger pool of buyers than employees, which becomes an obvious choice to use a holiday like Valentine’s Day to spread the love with communication tips to all their personal and professional contacts.
While certainly not an exhaustive list, this gives you alternatives to identify greater opportunities for you and for your buyers. There is budget for a company’s promotional activities. You have the ability to provide variety and flexibility in solving concerns your buyer has. That variety and flexibility help not only the decision-maker, it also helps the decision-maker’s company, the recipients of your buyers’ purchase, and your own company – all from useful information from your expertise. That’s a lot of positive contribution to the lives of a lot of people by spreading your knowledge to those who not only need what you know, they thrive as a result of it.
And, if you find that the head of Human Relations of a particular company is eager to do business with you, loves what you’ve got, sees the value in the company’s employees consuming your knowledge, and thereby wants to invest in a certain large number of copies of your products, and the opportunity basically falls in your lap for whatever reason, by all means, respectfully proceed. Remember to be grateful for the gift that showed up in your INBOX, Voicemail, or random conversation in a social or professional setting, knowing you have connected with one of the wonderful exceptions “out there.”
© 2023, Paulette Ensign – All Rights Reserved
